Cornelius "K9" Bundrage became a two-time junior middleweight titleholder tonight in Cancun, Mexico, dropping Carlos Molina two times en route to an unanimous decision win on scores of 115-110, 116-109, and 117-106. BLH had it 116-109 for Bundrage.
The 41-year-old Bundrage (34-5, 19 KO) put Molina down in the first round, and the rusty defending titlist was on bad legs getting up, but only had to survive about 15 more seconds to get out of the round, which he did. The second knockdown came in round 10. Bundrage did lose a point mid-fight, but it made no real difference. He also had constant issues with the tape on his gloves, but luckily that didn't get him Khomitsky'd.
Molina (22-6-2, 6 KO) hadn't fought since September 2013, when he beat Ishe Smith to win the title, after being jailed and deported earlier this year in Las Vegas, stalling his career due to charges that he'd failed to register as a sex offender in Wisconsin, where he'd had warrants out for his arrest dating back to 2005.
The 31-year-old fighter had a new hairdo, in that he had hair, but looked slow and feeble in the ring, not his usual frustrating self. Bundrage was able to beat him to the punch, counter effectively, and overcome what looked like some pretty serious stamina issues in the fight, because Molina simply couldn't press him enough to exploit the advantage.
For Molina, this setback could pretty much derail what's left of his career. With a title, at least he could force fringe contender types to come to Mexico to fight him. Without the belt, who's going to fight a guy with his reputation and relative lack of notoriety, and likely have to go on the road to do it?
With the win, Bundrage becomes the oldest man to win a world title at 154 pounds.